Google has always followed the same pattern for last couple of years with its Android naming process and this time is no different. They go sequentially down the alphabet and you guess the name. The users are asked to give suggestions and poll for their choices. Well, this time too, they were open to suggestions and received suggestions such as Nutella, Nankatai, etc. In a short video posted before the announcement via Twitter and Snapchat, the company suggested the operating system could be called ‘Nutmeg’, ‘Nectarine’, ‘Nachos’ or ‘Noodles’. But, in keeping with previous dessert-themed names such as Ice Cream Sandwich and KitKat, it has settled on “Nougat”.

The Android with its most stable release, brings new features like an improved notification shade and split-screen multitasking to the mobile OS, while also improving on features like Doze that came with Marshmallow last year. The release also has Daydream, Google’s new VR platform, baked in, though it’ll only be supported by Daydream-ready handsets running the OS.

Split-screen multitasking

The highlight of Android Nougat is split-screen multitasking. The device screen will show two different apps simultaneously, and video apps will support picture-in-picture mode. The system fills the screen with two apps, showing them either side-by-side or one-above-the-other. The user can drag the dividing line separating the two in order to make one app larger and the other smaller. Manufacturers of larger devices will be able to choose to enable freeform mode, allowing users to freely resize each activity. If the manufacturer enables this feature, the device offers freeform mode in addition to split-screen mode.

Improved Notifications

Directly reply from notifications and one can see more app information are part of enhanced notification feature. The Direct Reply feature will let you quickly respond to text messages or update task lists within the notification interface. The inline reply action is an additional button attached to the notification. There is also something called ‘Bundled Notifications’ that groups notifications from the same app together. Grouped notifications can be expanded into notifications by tapping the new expansion button or a two-finger gesture.

Less RAM usage

Google is working on Project Svelte to minimize the RAM used by the system and apps across different Android devices. Thus Android N is focused on optimizing the running of apps in background.

Quick Settings

In Android N, Google has expanded the scope of Quick Settings and added more room for additional Quick Settings tiles that can accessed across a paginated display area by swiping left or right. Google also lets you choose which Quick Settings tiles appear and where they are displayed, allowing users to add or move tiles just by dragging and dropping them.

Now with all new features, we need to wait until Nougat is actually released which is expected to be this fall.